TRAVELING ART INSTALLATION AT DE ANZA DEPICTS LOST LIVES FROM WARCompanion Program "Making Our Lives Count" Event Planned for April 29

CUPERTINO -- Hundreds of De Anza College students, faculty and staff have paused on the Main Quad to view the visually arresting "Counting Lives Lost: Making Tangible an Abstract Measure of Grief" on the first school day the art exhibition has been installed on campus.

The traveling sculpture installation depicts the almost 4,274 American casualties and almost 99,000 Iraqi dead since the beginning of the war in Iraq, each represented by a five-inch clay figure placed in a base of tons of sand. The artist is Kathleen Crocetti of Watsonville, a member of the "Blue Star Mothers of America," whose son is in the Air Force.

The exhibition, installed over the weekend, takes 600 people-hours to construct and therefore serves as part of the college's overall program "Counting Lives Lost, Making Our Lives Count: A Healing Dialogue." The April 29 event of the same name, to be held at 12:30 p.m. in Campus Center Conference Rooms A&B, will feature Crocetti and a student presentation. A multi-denominational memorial service is planned for May.

"The installation is a powerful statement reminding us of the loss of individuals and the numerous families affected," said De Anza College President Brian Murphy. "We are indebted to the students who brought the exhibit to us, and to the artist for the genius that inspired them."

The exhibition and program are being held on campus as the result of a dialogue between two De Anza students, a U.S. veteran of the Afghan War and a woman from Afghanistan.

De Anza College consistently ranks as one of the top institutions in California in transferring students to the UC and CSU systems. The college provides an average of 24,000 students each quarter with general education and vocational courses as well as interdisciplinary studies, community service opportunities, on-the-job-training, internships, collaborative programs with businesses and industries, and online and television classes. Read more about De Anza at www.deanza.edu.